Design Simulation Technologies Develops New 4D Mechanical Simulation Product

Broomfield, CO - Spatial Corp., a leading provider of 3D development components for design, manufacturing and engineering applications, today announces Design Simulation Technologies (DST) has launched their new product SimWise 4D, a mechanical simulation product providing 3D kinematic and dynamic motion simulation integrated with Finite Element Analysis. DST is pleased to acknowledge this new product has been brought to market with the help of Spatial’s 3D ACIS Modeler and 3D InterOp components.

SimWise 4D is created for mechanical designers and engineers who need to simulate the performance of their designs. While applicable to all mechanical industries, SimWise 4D has a clear focus on products consisting of moving mechanical assemblies. SimWise 4D helps designers and engineers obtain answers to fundamental questions about their designs, such as “Does it Work?” and “Will it Break?” It brings 3D dynamic motion simulation integrated in a single package plus tight connections to CAD systems to the engineer’s desktop in a product that does not require an engineering analyst to operate. The product’s Integrated Mechanical Design Simulation; 3D Dynamic Motion combined with FEA; tight integration with leading CAD systems; physics-based high definition animation; and link to control simulation products provide a complete mechanical simulation environment.

3D modeling capabilities and CAD translation components are required by DST to represent model geometry, evaluate mass properties, and check for interference, with all analyses performed on imported CAD geometry. The flexibility and robustness of 3D ACIS Modeler address the breadth of DST’s modeling needs. 3D InterOp delivers the highest quality data exchange of CAD formats, enabling superior CAD file translation; meeting DST requirements for error-free data. The quality of data import reduces support burden and allows engineers to start analysis sooner rather than work to clean up the model. It is this quality and ability to support DST’s unique requirements that allows SimWise 4D to pass on crucial benefits to the end-user such as reducing the number of physical prototypes, decreasing warranty costs, and improving product quality.

“Spatial’s components allowed us to get our product to market faster with world class modeling and interoperability”, states Alan Wegienka, DST Director. “It would not have been possible to bring this product to market without Spatial’s technology because we would never have been able to develop the modeling and interoperability technology we obtained from Spatial.”

"We are excited about our partnership with the DST team, and helping them deliver SimWise 4D. The technical advancements in the product confirm Spatial’s value – enabling DST to focus on innovative analysis rather than managing data translation issues or developing algorithms for tessellation and collision detection,” commented Ray Bagley, Spatial Director of Product Planning and Management. “Our commitment to DST continues and we are eager to assist them as they engage their customers and continue to extend SimWise 4D.”

DST develops physics-based simulation software. The company’s products are used by engineering professionals to build and test virtual models of their mechanical designs, and by educators and students in the classroom to teach and learn about physics and engineering kinematics, dynamics, and machine design. With DST’s SimWise 4D, Working Model 2D, and Dynamic Designer products, users evaluate their designs’ performance, conducting complete, accurate simulations. They can quickly perform many “what-if” analyses, find and correct design problems, and refine and validate their designs without the need for physical prototypes. DST develops, markets, and supports these software tools for commercial and academic users worldwide. Selected DST products are available from leading CAD suppliers and CAE resellers. For more information visit www.design-simulation.com.

Spatial Corp., a Dassault Systèmes subsidiary, is a leading provider of 3D development software components for technical applications across a broad range of industries. Spatial’s 3D modeling, 3D visualization, and CAD translation software components help application developers deliver market-leading products, maintain focus on core competencies, and reduce time-to-market. For 25 years, Spatial 3D components have been adopted by many of the world's most recognized software developers, manufacturers, research institutes, and universities. Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Spatial has offices in the USA, Germany, Japan, China and the United Kingdom. For more information, please visit www.spatial.com or contact Spatial by email at info_spatial@3ds.com or by phone at 303-544-2900.

TatukGIS DK Used to Develop Electrical Power Network Solutions in Brazil

TatukGIS customer Useall Software in Criciuma, Brazil develops a complete portfolio of software solutions for the electrical power distribution industry. The Useall E2 COD and E2 MIG modules are designed to manage, operate, and maintain an electrical power network, with georeferencing of network assets from the substation plant to each consumer unit. The visual geographical representation provides detailed information about the type of each electrical line (cable type, material, gage…) and pole structure (height, material of construction…), with support for engineering functions such a monitoring and managing electricity load within the network. Useall products are currently used by approximately 60 electricity generation and distribution companies located in all regions of Brazil.

The graphical user interface includes features to simplify network management, including:

Highlighting portions of the network (and customer connections) subject to an electrical outage.
Visualizing the voltage profile while identifying critical points in the network.
Planning and scheduling environment for network maintenance or expansion projects, with consideration of the effect of the project on the network.
Useall solutions rely on external technology that must be of a caliber to fulfill the demands of this kind of system. Oracle database is used for data storage - both the data registration and spatial geometric tables. The TatukGIS Developer Kernel (native Delphi DK-VCL edition) is used to develop the network geographic visualization environment. TatukGIS’s integrated support for the Oracle Spatial data structure is critical element of Useall solutions. TatukGIS support for the Oracle Spatial indexing features is excellent, delivering optimal performance in consideration of the complexity and size of this type of system.

Useall modules have approximately 14 layers, with the topography layer containing many types of data organized as single layer, enabling the user to choose what he wants to see inside this layer, e.g., rivers, roads, bridges, etc. With some implementations, the spatial database table contains more than one million registrations.

Useall system resources include:

User customized visualization (colors, sizes, etc.).
Real-time updating of network information.
Analysis of the power flow conditions throughout the network, with color display of voltage and charging levels.
Network project design, with cost budgeting.
Planning module, with visualization of network conditions over future time horizons.
Projection of network maintenance or expansion projects (scheduled outages), with visualization of the affected region.
Management of emergency services (power failure) and commercial operations (connections, disconnections, etc.).
Integration with asset control systems.
Printing module.

SuperWebGIS Applied to Biodiversity Conservation

SuperGeo Technologies, the leading global provider of complete GIS software and solutions, assists Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute in establishing the value-added application service of biodiversity database to promote biodiversity in Taiwan.

Due to the warm geographic environment, the plentiful species of flora and fauna flourish in Taiwan. However, the growing population has directly influenced the growth of endangered species. Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute has engaged in ecological restoration and promoting the concept of biodiversity to maintain the sustainable development for species.

Developed with SuperWebGIS, the Taiwan Biodiversity Network (TBN) aims to encourage people to use its application service, popularize the concept of biodiversity widely, and effectively collect information of species in Taiwan. Through accessing TBN, users can freely upload the species photos taken by them. Consequently, users can know the diverse creatures while sharing information online.

In order to preserve biodiversity and emphasize its importance in our daily life, the APP, i35, is designed for mobile users to gather the precious information of Taiwan species and share the survey results on TBN themselves more easily. Supporting both Android 2.3 and iOS 4.0, i35 allows users to obtain biological information and upload species photos anytime and anywhere.

Integrating with GPS and GIS technologies, i35 brings convenience to users when uploading photos with coordinate information. Meanwhile, users can query biological information found and recorded nearby the specific location all the time rather than carrying illustrated handbooks. The biodiversity can thus be surveyed and conserved better with GIS technology with the smart app.

For more information about SuperWebGIS, please visit: http://www.supergeotek.com/ProductPage_SWG3.aspx

For more information about the application story, please visit: http://www.supergeotek.com/Library_2_201204.aspx

About SuperGeo

SuperGeo Technologies Inc. is a leading global provider of GIS software and solutions. Since the establishment, SuperGeo has been dedicated to providing state-of-the-art geospatial technologies and comprehensive services for customers around the world. It is our vision to help users utilize geospatial technologies to create a better world.

SuperGeo software and applications have been spread over the world to be the backbone of the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. SuperGeo is the professional GIS vendor, providing GIS-related users with complete GIS solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.

SpotCrime Offers Its Crime Mapping Service to Police Departments Nationwide

SpotCrime, the most comprehensive online source for crime data, announced today that it will make its crime mapping service available to every police department in the U.S. free of charge.

The decision by SpotCrime to map crime data for any police department that requests it “will help to meet the public’s increasing demand for accurate, up-to-date crime data, allowing departments to devote more of their budgets to putting police on the street,” according to SpotCrime Founder and President Colin Drane.

Drane decided to offer crime mapping services to police departments nationwide after learning that some of his competitors were charging police agencies for exclusive mapping services, then reselling that crime data for commercial purposes.

“Knowing how much people need that crime data, we wanted to make our crime mapping services available without locking police departments into restrictive contracts with a single vendor,” explains Drane, whose company has become the nation’s most visited crime mapping website by a 2-to-1 margin.

“SpotCrime has always been a strong proponent of open access to data,” Drane continues “The more people aware of what’s occurring in their communities, the higher the chance that community will be proactive in the fight against crime.”

In offering to map crime data for any police department in the country, SpotCrime hopes to improve community safety by promoting mutual trust between law enforcement and the public, according to Drane. “Ultimately, we believe this will help to lower crime rates and increase the public’s peace of mind,” he asserts.

Through its model, SpotCrime pulls crime incident data from multiple sources, including local county and city police departments and validated news sources, to produce a comprehensive record of local crime information.

SpotCrime currently sends subscribers over four million email alerts monthly. With its media partners and multiple websites, SpotCrime estimates that more than five million people interact with the crime data the company generates each month.

The company has attracted numerous subscribers through its partnerships with major U.S. media companies, including Gannett, Sinclair, Belo Television, and Hearst. In addition, SpotCrime has seen its use skyrocket on DIRECTV, where customers have made SpotCrime’s TV App the fastest growing application offered by the popular video service, surpassing even Facebook.

SpotCrime also has launched an iPhone application which allows users to obtain detailed descriptions of the crimes listed and share crime incidents with others via email.

“SpotCrime is a commercial enterprise. We do not take any public funding and have no interested in locking up the data,” explains Drane. “SpotCrime’s intent is to get all relevant crime information to the public, taking full advantage of the Internet to allow this data to be shared, ultimately driving both greater awareness and new measures that will lead to a reduction in crime.”

DMCii’s Detailed Satellite Imagery Helps Brazil Stamp Out Deforestation as it Happens

Remote sensing solutions provider DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) has signed a contract with Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) to deliver near real-time satellite imagery to monitor forest clearing in the Amazon rainforest and target illegal logging as it happens.

INPE is leading the world in the use of satellite imagery to monitor deforestation, providing information central to Brazil’s war on deforestation that has cut deforestation rates by 78% since 2004. The space agency’s groundbreaking DETER service uses regular satellite images to detect forest clearance as it happens – rather than surveying the damage afterwards – guiding Brazil’s enforcement officers to provide effective forest clearing control. However in recent years, the authorities have discovered that illegal loggers are clearing smaller areas to evade detection by the 250metre-pixel MODIS data that is currently in use.

The new £2.1m contract signed with DMCii will enable INPE to downlink higher resolution 22metre resolution data directly from the UK-DMC2 satellite to its groundstation at Cuiaba, Brazil. With approximately 130 times as many pixels per hectare as the MODIS images currently in use, the data will detect these smaller clearings and provide more detailed maps. The UK-DMC2 satellite will image the entire Amazon basin every two weeks, so that the authorities are alerted as soon as possible after logging is detected. In a unique agreement, the data covering Brazil will be made freely available on open licence through the INPE website so the general public can follow progress against deforestation.

Dr. Gilberto Camara, Director General of INPE said: “With the recent failure of Landsat 5 it became urgent to increase the supply of satellite imagery to operate our forest monitoring system, and DMC data provides a very cost effective tool. The 650km wide swath DMC imagery provides a frequency of coverage and level of detail which enhances the ability of our DETER system to identify deforestation at an early stage. I am particularly pleased that DMCii has agreed to an open licence so that INPE can make the data freely available through its website – an innovation which has enhanced public monitoring of forest management in Brazil."

The contract builds on seven years of cooperation with INPE. Paul Stephens, Director of Sales & Marketing at DMCii commented: "DMCii has a commitment to improved forest governance and management through the provision of timely and reliable information. This is especially important for development of effective REDD+ programmes in tropical forested countries. I am delighted to extend our long standing work with INPE, which is the world leader in the fight against deforestation."

DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) is a UK based supplier of remote sensing data products and services for international Earth Observation (EO) markets. DMCii supplies programmed and archived optical satellite imagery provided by the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). DMCii’s data is used extensively in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping.

In partnership with the UK Space Agency and the other Disaster Monitoring Constellation member nations (Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and Spain), DMCii works with the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ to provide free satellite imagery for humanitarian use in the event of major international disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, fires and flooding.

DMCii was formed in October 2004 and is a subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), the world leader in small satellite technology. SSTL designed and built the Disaster Monitoring Constellation with the support of the UK Space Agency and in conjunction with the other Disaster Monitoring Constellation Consortium member nations listed above.

DMC International Imaging Ltd is not affiliated in any way with Intergraph Corp., Z/I Imaging Corp., or their registered trade mark DMC.

New iPad, iPhone App Helps Mariners Avoid Endangered Right Whales

Mariners along the U.S. east coast can now download a new iPad and iPhone application that warns them when they enter areas of high risk of collision with critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The free Whale Alert app provides one source for information about right whale management measures and the latest data about right whale detections, all overlaid on NOAA digital charts.

“Whale Alert represents an innovative collaboration to protect this critically endangered species,” said David Wiley, NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary research coordinator and project lead. “Whale conservation is greater than any one organization and this project shows how many organizations can unite for a good cause.”

A key feature of Whale Alert is a display linking near real-time acoustic buoys that listen for right whale calls to an iPad or iPhone on a ship’s bridge showing the whale’s presence to captains transiting the shipping lanes in and around Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. “The idea that right whales are directly contributing to conservation through their own calls is pretty exciting,” said Christopher Clark, whose team at the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology helped develop the acoustic detection and warning system.

North Atlantic right whales, which live along North America’s east coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, are one of the world’s rarest large animals and a species on the brink of extinction. Recent estimates put the population of North Atlantic right whales at approximately 350 to 550 animals. Collision with ships is a leading cause of right whale death.

“Massport is proud to be part of this effort. We are working with our cruise and shipping vessel partners to educate mariners about the whales, and the importance of this great new tool,” said Michael Leone, port director for the Massachusetts Port Authority. “The maritime community has always sought ways to increase right whale survival. Whale Alert does this by using science and technology to let mariners know where their vessel is in relation to the whales and conservation measures."

The link to the listening network is only part of what Whale Alert does. The app uses GPS, Automatic Identification System, Internet and digital nautical chart technologies to alert mariners to NOAA’s right whale conservation measures that are active in their immediate vicinity. NOAA, through its NOAA Fisheries Service, is the U.S. agency with responsibility for protecting and recovering this endangered species.

"Endangered right whales are particularly vulnerable to being hit and killed by ships, but we can save them," said Patrick Ramage, global whale director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare and one of the collaborators on Whale Alert. "Right whales need dramatic conservation progress to survive. This new iPad app gives these whales a fighting chance."

Whale Alert, a free app, can be downloaded from the App Store.

“The app also moves whale conservation into the 21st century,” said Brad Winney co-founder of EarthNC, the developer of the Whale Alert mobile application. “Whale Alert highlights the powerful role today's web and mobile based technologies can have in the preservation efforts of endangered species worldwide.”

Whale Alert has been developed by a collaboration of government agencies, academic institutions, non-profit conservation groups and private sector industries, led by scientists at NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Collaborating organizations include the sanctuary, Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell University, Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, EarthNC, Excelerate Energy, EOM Offshore, Gaia GPS, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Massachusetts Port Authority, NOAA Fisheries Service, National Park Service, Cape Cod National Seashore, NYK Lines (North America), United States Coast Guard and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Whale Alert can be downloaded free of charge from the App store. More information on Whale Alert and the groups responsible for its development can be found at http://stellwagen.noaa.gov/protect/whalealert.html

iSoftStone Acquires Jiangchen

iSoftStone Holdings Limited ("iSoftStone" or the "Company" , NYSE: ISS), a leading China-based IT services provider, today announced that, Beijing Guodian Ruantong Technology Co., Ltd. ("Guodian"), a subsidiary of iSoftStone, has acquired all of the assets, customer base and business of Nanjing Jiangchen Science & Technology Co., Ltd. ("Jiangchen"), a geographic information systems ("GIS") and smart grid software and solutions provider based in Nanjing, China.

The acquisition should broaden iSoftStone's industry coverage by adding power distribution to its existing electric power generation IT services business. Jiangchen helps China's top power distributors by applying its proprietary software products in GIS, smart grid systems, and energy saving services. Jiangchen is expected to enhance iSoftStone's energy industry solution portfolio to help major power distributors gain better insights into their business, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Mr. T.W. Liu, iSoftStone's Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, said, "The power industry favors larger IT solution providers with broad, deep, and integrated domain knowledge in both energy generation and distribution. This acquisition will broaden our array of IT capabilities in the energy vertical. We can now help major electric power distributors address their challenges and seize new opportunities."

Founded in 2004, Jiangchen is a software development company specializing in GIS and smart grid solutions to the power distribution industry.

Guodian, a subsidiary of iSoftStone (NYSE:ISS - News), is a leading provider of IT software and solutions in power supply industry.

iSoftStone is a leading China-based IT services provider serving both greater China and global clients. iSoftStone provides an integrated suite of IT services and solutions including consulting & solutions, IT services, and business process outsourcing services. The company focuses on industry verticals that include technology, communications, banking, financial services, insurance, energy, transportation, and public sectors. For more, please visit: www.isoftstone.com.